K League coverage in 17 markets

Korean football’s K League and its media rights distribution partner Sportradar have agreed deals in 17 international markets ahead of the league’s 2020 season restart today.

Deals were revealed with free-to-air broadcaster TVB in Hong Kong, and pay-television broadcasters Astro in Malaysia and Brunei, and Arena TV Sports in seven Balkan territories. These add to already-reported deals with Optus in Australia, and Sportdigital in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The Yonhap news agency reported that deals are also in place with CSM in China and Macao, digital platform FanCode in India, and broadcaster Carlton in Israel.

Discussions are reported to be ongoing with interested broadcasters in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US, and Brazil.

Streaming deals have also been agreed with digital platforms Copa90 in the UK and Laola.tv in Austria.

Today’s opening match between Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Suwon Samsung Bluewings is also being streamed live globally on Twitter and YouTube.

The slew of media-rights deals agreed for the Korean K League ahead of its recent restart did not generate large revenues for international distributor Sportradar. But the league hopes to capitalise, in the years to come, on the boost to its profile, as one of the first competitions to restart after Covid-19-related shutdowns.

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